Tag: naturaleza

You’re probably wondering why I am calling San Juan “Cat City”, if you have ever been to El Morro in Old San Juan you would know exactly what I mean! There is a really nice path to walk by the main fortress wall of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. Before you get to the wall there is el Paseo de la Princesa which is European-style “Raíces” fountain and walkway through shady trees after passing through that part you make it around to el paseo del morro (path or walkway by the wall).

Before we made it to the Raíces fountain we saw nearly 20 cats. We own 2 cats so I approached some of them and tried to give them food but they were all very skittish.

As we walked along both paseos we were surrounded by cats, I had never seen anything like it! I wish we had taken more pictures but there were probably hundreds of cats on both sides of the walkway hidden in nooks and below whatever they could find. The nice thing is that someone brings big bins of food and water for all the cats there.

We sat at one of the benches and played with some of the cats for a little bit. After they saw that we were nice, more and more cats wanted attention.

We enjoyed walking around Old San Juan and the random surprises that we found.

Some people call this hike The Stairs of Doom but I think it is a great hike to see Hawaii Kai as well as much of the Southern part of Oahu. Yes, it is about 1050 steps going up but it’s a good workout with a great view at the end. I have done it 5 times and always enjoy being up top.

Koko Crater Trail is a 1.8 mile hike and from the top, you are able to see Hanauma Bay, Hawaii Kai, a part of Sandy’s Beach, Makupu’u and obviously Koko Crater. As you can see in the other pictures you climb up railroad tie almost all the way to the top. At certain parts of the trail, it is a lot steeper and more strenuous.

Depending on how fast you walk or climb it could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. My wife and I hike it in about 25 minutes and with my parents, it was an hour.

There is anther way to way to climb up but it is much longer and more dangerous, you can start in the botanical garden and hike along the ridge all the way up to the top, it has great views along the way but is much longer.

It is definitely a hike I would recommend if you find yourself in Waikiki and are looking for a good quick hike to do. It is easy to find, free to hike and has plenty of parking down at the bottom.

Chile has many beautiful sights to see. I have been fortunate enough to be able to drive North and South of Viña del Mar with my in-laws and wife. There is a lot to see and it reminds me of California with a highway going along the coast similar to the Pacific Coast Highway. On Wednesday we went to Maitencillo, Cachagua, Zapallar, and Horcon in search of some waves to surf. We drove to Maitencillo and didn’t find any great spots to surf so we continued up the highway to Cachagua which was beautiful and there was only one other family on the beach.

A nice deserted beach in Cachagua Chile

Side note: Chile is a great place to visit from March-May because most of the summer tourist have left which makes it a lot less crowded.

We walked the beach and found a rock pathway that went along the coast and was next to some huge houses. After walking around we decided to go Zapallar (further North) to continue the wave search but Zapallar is very enclosed and had no waves. As we went down into the city of Zapallar we passed through the quaint city center and as we were driving down the hill getting closer to the beach the houses started to get larger and looked like the belonged to affluent people. We made it down to one of the beaches and as we were walking down the stairs off in the distance my wife saw dolphins so we ran over to some rocks to try and get a better view. The dolphin was shy at first and then it started jumping around not too long after and we stayed and watched it for a while.

After watching the dolphin we decided to head back home. On the way, we decided to make one more stop in Horcon. It wasn’t the prettiest place because it is a humble fishing town but we saw a rock arch and made our way over to it.

Horcon Chile

We walked past an artisan market and there was a bridge with many ribbons tied to it, they call it the bridge of desires puente de deseos, because you write your desire on a ribbon and then tie it to the bridge. We took some pics and continued to the arch.

Puente de Deseos

We then walked back and on the way back we were able to watch a beautiful sunset, it was unexpected because it was such a great view from a place that wasn’t as pretty as all of the other places we had visited.